…If this is not the time of all times to question the fundamental basis of our financial system, I do not know when we ever shall. …

To conclude, we are in danger of simply kicking a can down the road and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Clacton said, ladling water into the boat. We are looking at further credit expansion, further monetisation of debts and further socialisation of risk. Throughout the western world, we are in danger of appearing as King Canute, trying to use politics to hold back the realities of social co-operation, which we usually describe as economics. The IMF is an institutional legacy from a monetary system that failed 40 years ago, and the successor to which is even now failing as well.

We live in a time of immense forces at work in the world: huge bailouts of nation states, “quantitative easing” and extensive intervention in credit markets. Where it leads remains to be seen but I believe we will need rather more imaginative thought about the financial system before this episode in our history is over.